Hidden Tracks

Hidden Tracks [Background: The CD format has brought about the resurgence of the hidden track, a gimmick that originated on certain vinyl LPs as early as the 1960s] You know the situation. You arrive home after a visit to the local record shop, or the latest CD album release that you've ordered from Amazon is waiting on your doormat when you get home. You carefully place the CD in your hi-fi and listen intently to each track in turn, from the singles, through the obligatory ballads and obvious fillers, right through to the last track on the album . . . . . . . . . . or so you think! But what's this? You've listened to all ...

Hidden tracks. Fantastic as far as I'm concerned. The main thing to be taken into account when thinking about hidden tracks is that they are very rarely serious. The cases for the insane range from the hidden track on Ash's first album (1979?) which featured the band supposedly puking up. The star one as far as I'm concerned though is on The Stone Roses' Second Coming album. I remember it specifically because I'd only just got a CD player and said album was the first one I'd bought. As those of you who know the album will know, there are '99' tracks on the album, with the hidden track being track 90, after ...

Ever cranked the volume up playing an album, finished listening to it, not taken it out of the player, and BLAMM!! If you're in the habit of listening through headphones, and nodding off... you'll know what I mean. Sometimes it's good to hear them, a pleasant surprise? sometimes they're annoying - a surprise yes, but definitely not 'belonging' to the CD you're listening to? sometimes you can only be indifferent to them. You don't even notice they're there, either because you miss them completely, or they just blend into all the other tracks. First of all, what is a hidden track? Generally speaking, ...